Facebook Messenger for iOS adds groups, forwarding

The Facebook Messenger iOS app recently became a bit more useful for people who like to chat through the social network.

Facebook on Thursday updated the app with the ability to put people in groups for easier access. The feature lets you group together people you message and assign that group a name and photo, for example "Roommates" or "Family." In addition, the updated app now lets you forward conversations or images to people who aren't on the original message thread.

The new features come as part of Facebook's 4.0 update to the Messenger app. The app allows users to message Facebook friends without to open the social network's full app.

However, it's not clear how much longer Facebook Messenger will be around. The service is essentially a replacement for SMS on mobile devices. Now that Facebook plans to acquire WhatsApp for $19 billion, it's possible that service will replace Messenger entirely.